A Note from Author Dean Robbins

A note from author Dean Robbins

In 1940, Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, known Also illustrated by as Machito, formed Machito and His Afro-Cubans and helped invent Latin jazz. The band played their Eric Velasquez songs in the sophisticated jazz style that was popular in the United States, improvising on traditional jazz instruments such as trumpets and saxophones. But they also added strong dancing rhythms from African and Latin American countries, like Machito’s native Cuba, along with Latin American instruments such as maracas and congas.

Mario Bauzá, who composed classic songs for Machito and His Afro-Cubans, compared the music to the layers of a lemon meringue pie: jazz on top and Afro-Cuban rhythms on the bottom. It blended influences from many cultures.

Machito, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, and other great Latin jazz bandleaders started in a Schomburg: part of New York City called Spanish Harlem, becoming popular with the neighborhood’s The Man Who Built a Library many Latino residents. They soon took their music three miles south to the Palladium A Walter Dean Myers Award Winner Ballroom, which welcomed fans from all neighborhoods. The diverse audience at the Palladium marveled over the wide range of expression in Latin jazz, from elegance to A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year ecstasy. I saw Puente’s band late in his career and swooned over the joyous music, just like the people who first heard it in the 1940s. A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year Latin jazz was thought-provoking for those who paid close attention to the creative Recipient of FIVE starred reviews compositions and solos. It was deeply emotional for those who responded to the passionate (Publishers Weekly, performances. And it was fun to dance to for those who just wanted to cut loose. School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Shelf Awareness) The new Latin jazz style paired perfectly with a new dance, the mambo, which came from written by Cuba. During songs like “Mambo Mucho Mambo,” dancers moved to the powerful beat, Carole Boston Weatherford stepping quickly while swinging their hips in a smooth motion. Each couple added their HC: 978-0-7636-8046-6 own ideas, from leaps to backbends to splits. PB: 978-1-5362-0897-9 Ages 8–12 · 48 pages Some of the Palladium dancers became well known for their special talents. Ernie Ensley Also available as an e-book and Dotty Adams did wild jumps and spins that many others tried to imitate. Harry and Rose Fine danced while Harry worked as the ballroom’s photographer. Harry sometimes took pictures as he did the mambo, sliding across the floor on his knees!

Millie Donay won a dance contest at the Palladium in 1950, and so did Pedro Aguilar. They met at the ballroom, married, and became one of the country’s best mambo teams. As a mixed-race couple, they also challenged the prejudice of the times. Few Also available in a people had seen a white woman and a man Spanish-language edition of color proudly dancing together in public. Schomburg: El hombre que creó una biblioteca By challenging segregation, the Palladium PB: 978-1-5362-0898-6 Ballroom set the stage for the 1950s Also available as an e-book civil rights movement. In the 1960s, the movement succeeded in changing the laws of the United States so that people of all backgrounds could mix on the dance floor and everywhere else.